C. Omololu - Intuition

I look over at Drew and nod. Sometimes when I see him out of the corner of my eye I get flashes of Connor and the life we had together, and it gets hard to separate memory from reality. “Yes. A few hundred years ago. I only remember pieces of it, though.”

She follows my gaze. “Sometimes it takes more than one lifetime for things to work out as they’re supposed to.” Portia stands up and stretches so that I can see her flat stomach and tiny little belly ring. I’m not surprised to see the ankh charm hanging off it. “Promise me you’ll come to the show tomorrow night. You two blew me off last week, so you kind of owe me.”

I think about what it would be like to see Portia on stage after talking to her all night at a dinner party. Rayne was dying to go to the show, but it sold out in minutes when the tickets went on sale months ago. “Can I bring someone?” She only got out of the hospital two days ago, but she’d kill me if I let her miss this opportunity.

“Sure,” she says. “As long as Drew doesn’t mind, it’s fine with me. I’ll see you all backstage at the show.” Portia leans in and gives me an air kiss on the cheek. Usually I hate that kind of thing, but with her, it seems to work. She walks over to say good-bye to Drew, and I stand up and gather a few plates that are left on the table.

“Leave those,” Drew says, walking back toward me. “The caterers will get them.”

“Okay,” I say, feeling useless.

“Did you meet anyone you liked?”

“Everyone was great,” I say. “I do have a question, though. Does ‘anen’ mean that someone killed themselves?”

He smiles. “Good catch. Anen is when an Akhet decides to end this lifetime. You won’t see very many extremely old Akhet; when these bodies break down, most decide to trade them in.”

I hadn’t thought much about that. “I guess you don’t worry so much about death, knowing there’s another lifetime waiting for you.”

He looks at me with a serious expression. “Depends on what’s waiting for you in this one.”

I look away, knowing exactly what he means, a pang of guilt in my chest that I can’t return his feelings.

The crowd around us is definitely thinning out. “I guess I should get going.” I reach for my bag hanging on the back of a chair.

“Do you have to?” he says. “It’s not that late.”

“Tell that to my parents. They’re already mad at me . . .” I was going to say that they were mad about him, but somehow that doesn’t seem right. “We already fight about where I go and what time I come home.”

“Sorry,” he says. “They didn’t like it that I came to your house that day.”

I shake my head. “No, they didn’t. They think you’re too old to be hanging around me.” I have to laugh at how ridiculous that is, with everything I know.

His smile is slightly sad. “Under normal circumstances, I’d agree with them. When I turned eighteen, you were only fourteen. If you were my daughter, I’d probably go after the guy with a restraining order. And a baseball bat.”

“Lucky for you, my dad’s not much of an athlete.” I look up at Drew’s face. Even though there are the barest hints of laugh lines at the corners of his eyes, he seems ageless. He smiles, and I pull my gaze away and look around the room. “Well, thanks for inviting me. I had fun.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, right? Portia said that if we don’t come to her show, she’ll disown me.”

“Um . . . sure. I told her I was bringing Rayne. Is that okay?”

“Whatever you want,” he says. “Is she well enough to go?”

“For a Portia Martin concert, she’ll go if we have to wheel her in on a stretcher.” I smile. “I think she’ll be fine, for a couple of hours at least.”

Drew looks around at the small groups of people still left in the living room. “How did you get here, anyway?”

“Bus,” I say. “They’re still running. It’s a weekend schedule.”

“There’s no way I’m letting you get on a bus this late. Give me a second to settle up with the caterers and I’ll give you a ride.”

“It’s okay, I’ve—”

“I’m not taking no for an answer. I’ll be right back.”

Drew disappears before I can say anything, and I’m left alone in the quiet room. Music is playing softly on the stereo in the corner and the lights are dim, but the place seems even bigger now that it’s almost empty. Giselle is sitting on the couch drinking coffee and talking to some other women. I’m sure she has orders not to leave until I do.

I glance out the floor-to-ceiling windows that line the walls and take a couple of steps toward one. We’re so high up that even though I know the other skyscrapers are huge, they look tiny from here. Over to the right I see the Bay Bridge, a river of lights flowing along the entire span. There are a few ships’ lights on the water, and it’s clear enough that I can see the lights of South San Francisco disappearing in the distance.

I feel Drew behind me right before he speaks. “Amazing, isn’t it? Almost like being in an airplane.”

“We’re so high up, it feels like one could hit us.”

“No chance,” he says. “We’re not in the flight path.”

I take a few steps toward the other window and put my hand on the glass to steady myself. We’re at eye level with the very tip of the pointy Transamerica Pyramid a few blocks away, and the lights of Marin blink in the distance. “You really can see everything from up here.”

Drew stands next to me and looks out into the distance. “I love being this high up, looking at the tiny dots of light from the cars and buildings way down there. Makes me feel powerful. Alive.”

He’s standing so close I can feel the warmth of his body against mine. I’m startled to realize I enjoy it, that the sensation of him close to me is familiar, almost comforting. My mind pulls away from the dark, empty space I’ve been nurturing inside since Griffon turned his back on me at the studio.

I think back to another time and another place. A different face with kind green eyes, but the same essence, the same vibrations between us. I remember the taste of his lips on mine and the softness of his touch on the back of my neck. I close my eyes and see the desire on Connor’s face as we come together, completely swept up in the moment until time seems to stop except for the feel of his fingers on my skin. The desire that can’t be dampened by centuries apart.

“Lovely to see you again, my boy,” Sonia says, coming over to say good-bye. Drew backs away from me just slightly as she gives him a kiss on both cheeks. “It was wonderful to meet you, my dear,” she says to me.

“You too.”

I glance at Drew, wondering what will happen if he gives me a ride home. I can picture us parked in front of my house and me not making the same choice that I made the other night. “Sonia, wait,” I call as she heads for the elevator. “Do you think you could drop me off in the Haight?”

She hesitates, looking at Drew. “If you’d like.”

I turn to him. “It’s just easier—there are still people here, and this way you don’t have to leave.”

“It’s no trouble—”

“I’ll just go with Sonia,” I insist, knowing I’m going to get an earful in the car from her. I quickly give Drew a kiss on the cheek, avoiding his eyes and the disappointment I know I’ll see there. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say as I run to the elevator that Sonia is holding for me.

“Can the patient have a cupcake?” I ask, swinging the bag in front of Rayne as she opens her door.

“Ooh, yes!” she says, grabbing it out of my hands. “The patient is so bored she’s about to go crazy. Peter was supposed to come over this afternoon, but he’s stuck in Berkeley.”